


Love All Around

by Hogsnkisses



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Gay Will Byers, M/M, Minor Will Byers/Mike Wheeler, Sad Will Byers, Will Byers Loves Mike Wheeler, please don't be harsh I'm trying my best, this is my first fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:40:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21768511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hogsnkisses/pseuds/Hogsnkisses
Summary: Will Byers knew a lot about hateIt took him a little while to learn what it meant to love instead.
Relationships: Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
Comments: 5
Kudos: 55





	Love All Around

Will Byers knew a lot about hate. 

Growing up in a small, Midwestern town, he had seen his fair share. Was he sensitive? Sometimes. A little shy? More often than not. He was still a sweet boy… kind, thoughtful, brave, smart… he was a good kid. 

The kind of kid that Hawkins and all its monsters loved to shred to pieces. The kind of kid that Hawkins seemed to “hate.” There were bullies. They called him “zombie boy”. Insulting him. They even hit him, sometimes. There was the bully inside Will’s head who told him that all his classmates had liked him better when they thought he was dead. And that? 

That hurt worse than any punch could. 

Still, Will told himself that it was okay. Middle school is rough, and constantly changing. Will knew well enough about how scary change could be. Kids were mean, and while he didn’t like it, he _understood_. He didn’t hold that against them. 

And yes, the kids were cruel to him. But Hawkins had monsters far worse than any human could be. Terrible creatures hiding in their own reality, with claws and teeth, who shrieked and screamed and chased. Recently, those particular monsters had taken to lurking in his dreams, stalking him like prey until he was so afraid he woke up with tears in his eyes and a scream in his throat. Those monsters hated him, but that was different. He didn’t understand. He didn’t want to. He just wanted them to stop. 

It was different, because they hated him and he hated them right back. 

Sometimes, he felt so consumed by hate. Both for him and from him. It was hard to get out of bed on days like that, when it felt like he had nothing left inside of him but hate. When he felt like the only thing he knew how to do right was be hated. It made him angry and sad and scared all at once, and feeling so many things just made him feel exhausted. And hopeless. Alone. 

And then there was Mike. 

Sometimes, on those days, Mike would come over. He’d bring a comic book, or a campaign, or a story he was working on, and he would just talk. He could talk for hours about anything, or nothing, depending on what the subject was. Some might have found it annoying, but Will didn’t. It grounded him, kept him going. He would sit by Mike’s side, and say nothing. Mike would laugh and talk and carry on like nothing was wrong at all, and sometimes? Sometimes that was all Will needed. Mike would make a joke, or trip over his feet, and Will would crack a shy smile. Mike would beam back at him, and for a moment, it would feel like things were okay… just for a little while. Will might have been made of hate, but Mike 

Mike was made of love itself. 

It had been awhile since _it_ had happened. He was 16 now. Older, more mature. He had bad days still, but they were fewer and farther between. It was Christmas, which usually sunk him, weighed him down. 

But there was no weight on him tonight. 

Tonight, he was with Mike. They were at his house, decorating the tiny, limp tree his mother had managed to save up and buy. Mike was singing along to Christmas carols, as terribly as he possibly could. His mother laughed from the couch. Jonathan was back from college and was snapping pictures with a smile when he thought Mike and Will weren’t looking. And as they were decorating the tree that was small, but _theirs_ , Will had a thought. When Jonathan ushered them all in front of the tree and snapped a picture of them, he began to realize. And when Mike pulled him under the Mistletoe as everyone had gone to bed and kissed him like he meant it, smiling and pulling him into an embrace when they were finished, Will understood. 

He looked around and saw that love, actually, was all around. It was in the hugs his mother gave him. In the mixtapes Jonathan sent home from college. It was in his best friend's smiles when they were 12, which turned into his boyfriend’s kisses when he was 16. Love, he realized, was everywhere. And it always would be, as long as he remembered where to look.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys!! This is my first fic, so I would appreciate it if you guys would leave a comment telling me how I did! I hope you guys like it, I'll try to post more in the future.


End file.
